1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector. More specifically, the present invention relates to a card connector with an eject mechanism that facilitates ejection of a card.
2. Related Art
In a so-called push-push type card connector with eject mechanism, when a card is inserted (pushed) into a connector, the card is locked. When the card is pushed again, the lock is released and the card is ejected from the connector. In the push-push type card connector, the eject mechanism disposed inside facilitates ejection of the card by way of a pressing operation of the card.
As the above-mentioned push-push type eject mechanism, an eject mechanism has been known which includes a slider that forms a heart-shaped cam groove and a guide rod that is guided to the heart-shaped cam groove, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2005-071667.
In the connector with the eject mechanism shown in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2005-071667, one end of the guide rod moves along the heart-shaped cam groove by way of the pressing operation of the card to define an engaging position of an ejecting position of the card. However, the connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2005-071667 has a defect in which an external form of the connector is large since a broad slider is provided inside the housing.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned defect, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2000-195587 discloses a small card connector in which an engaging and ejecting mechanism of a card is made smaller.
The card connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2000-195587 is provided with a housing of plate shape and a tray. The housing has a plurality of contacts disposed at a concave portion. The tray can be slid against the concave portion and receive the card.
When the tray receives the card at a front position and moves toward a back position, the tray is engaged with the housing so as to remain at the back position. Then, when the tray is pressed backward again, it is configured so that the engagement is released and the tray is returned back to the front position again.
The card connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2000-195587 includes cavities (a first cavity and a second cavity which communicate with each other) that are formed in a board thickness direction (a thickness direction of the housing in a configuration of the housing). In this way, it is necessary for the card connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2000-195587 to include at least a pair of molds facing each other in a depth direction of the housing and a pair of molds facing each other in a thickness direction of the housing. Thus, this results in one of the causes for which manufacturing cost of the housing cannot be reduced. Moreover, the card connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Publication No. 2000-195587 has a configuration which is not assembled easily since components thereof are not molded easily.